The first time I went through a spinning vortex light tunnel I literally fell to my knees, hung on to the side railing and squeezed my eyes shut. I was 22 years old but feeling like I had just jumped off the “Spin Thing” at the playground as a child, collapsing into the grass to watch the clouds spin overhead. It was wonderful. Spinning tunnels mess with our proprioception, or our sense of our body in space. Inside the vortex our brain gets confused trying to synch up contradicting input. Our eyes say we should be spinning, our body says we’re still vertical. Add a few creepy characters and some 3D effects and your brain is basically saying “wtf, seriously what are you doing, this is not normal” which can trigger an arousal (threat) response. This makes sense, I mean where in history would we ever naturally encounter such

Yep, I went to the Gathering of the Juggalos this past weekend in Thornville, OH. For those of you not familiar with the Gathering, or Juggalos, here is a comprehensive place to catch up: Steve Miller article at Daily Beast. I had discovered Juggalos, or more accurately Insane Clown Posse when they were guests on Love Line with Dr. Drew. They tore up the studio and proved to be one of their most entertaining guests of all time. From there I began following their music career, and the growing fan base. I didn’t care for their music–I would say about 90% of my daily music is cycling through my Aimee Mann, Liz Phair, and Portishead stations on Pandora. But I was fascinated by the following and the culture that was developing around the group, especially since they didn’t have any huge PR machine pushing them into the public. And then I

Well folks I did it, I finally fulfilled a lifelong dream to jump out of a plane (BTW and I’ve edited this post down from like ten pages so those of you who said I write too much, note taken, more for the book!) I’ve noticed people have one of two reactions when you tell them you’re going skydiving. They either say “oh wow that’s so cool! I want to do that too!” or “You’re crazy, I would never do that, it’s too scary.” Then of course there is the third reaction reserved for closed loved ones of “I’m scared for you. Don’t die.” But that third reaction usually follows one of the two initial responses. Skydiving is incredibly safe (as long as you’re working through professionals of course). There were 3.2 million jumps last year and 24 fatalities. That’s about .00075 fatalities per 1,000 jumps, and for tandem jumps

Hello Everyone! The first thing people always ask when I tell them I study fear is ‘why’? So, I’m going to do my best to sum it up. I love to be scared. I love the anticipation and suspense. I love the adrenaline and excitement. I know I’m not alone in this love. But I am curious about it–why do people like to be scared (while some loath it)? Why do I like to be scared? And really, what is fear? I’m about to find out first hand. I also love to study. I believe life is about exploration and adventure, about asking questions and constantly seeking answers. I’ve been studying fear for a long time now; reading every historical, sociological, psychological, cultural, biological, and neurological article I could find on the topic. The more I read the more curious I became so I started collecting data from people who